Democratic Society’s imperative—Solidarity “amid diversifying populations”

Excerpting, editing by Carolyn Bennett

The territory we live in today is uncharted,

the challenge unprecedented in human history

Institute for Human Sciences Fellow Charles Taylor writes in “Solidarity in a Pluralist Age.”

This is some of what Professor Taylor had to say in the column published last month in Social Europe Journal.

“The advancing force of [Islam phobia] in Europe and the United States with its attempt to reduce Islam’s complex and varied history to a few demagogic slogans is the kind of utterly ignorant stupidity … on which democratic societies founder. …This is true of any kind of dismissive view of the ‘other.’”

“Our societies will hold together only if we talk to each other with openness and frankness and, in doing so, recreate a certain sense of solidarity from all our different roots.”

“Europe’s most successful welfare states were created in ethnically homogeneous Scandinavia [where people] had the sense that they could understand their neighbors and fellow citizens and that they shared a close link with them.” The challenge nowadays, however, is to maintain that sense of intense solidarity — “amid diversifying populations.”

“All democratic societies today face the challenge of redefining their identity in dialogue with some elements that are external and some that are internal. Consider the influence of feminist movements throughout the West.” These people had not come from outside their countries; but in some ways, they lacked full citizenship. They demanded it and, by obtaining it, “redefined the political order.”

Democratic societies cannot function beyond a certain level of mutual distrust or a sense on the part of some members that other members have abandoned them, Taylor says. Democratic societies fall apart without the essential solidarity.

“The great task is —

To calm fears that our traditions are being undermined;

To reach out to people who are coming into our lands from other countries; and

To find a way of recreating our political ethic around the kernel of human rights, equality, non-discrimination, and democracy.

“If we succeed, we can create a sense that we belong together, even though our reasons for believing so may be different.”

Sources and notes

“Solidarity in a Pluralist Age” (column by Charles Taylor), Social Europe Journal—debating progressive politics in Europe and beyond, September 28, 2010, http://www.social-europe.eu/2010/09/solidarity-in-a-pluralist-age/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+SEJColumns+%28Social+Europe+Journal+%C2%BB+Columns%29

Article Copyright Project Syndicate

Charles Taylor is Professor emeritus at McGill University in Montréal and Permanent Fellow at the Institute for Human Sciences. Taylor is author of the book A Secular Age.

The Institute for Human Sciences (Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen or IWM) is a Vienna, Austria-based independent institute for advanced study in the humanities and social sciences. It promotes intellectual exchange between East and West, between academia and society, and between a variety of disciplines and schools of thought.

  
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